Short hops and hard knocks with Red Sox beat writer Ian Browne.

Saturday night at Fenway

What will David Ortiz do tonight to build off his home run from last night? Seemingly, not much. The slugger found himself on the bench for the third time in four games. The Red Sox have run into a string of lefties of late.

Victor Martinez is serving as the DH because tomorrow is a day game and they want him to catch Tim Wakefield.

Speaking of Wake, it should be a pretty good storyline with him pitching, and knowing it’s going to be his last start for a while. Wakefield has been a loyal soldier. You have to feel bad for him getting bounced from the rotation after just two bad starts. At the same time, you understand why the club no longer wants to stunt Clay Buchholz’s development.

The way baseball tends to work out, I’m thinking Wakefield will find his way back into the rotation at some point this season.

Wondering about Papelbon’s save. Even though a closer meets the criteria for receiving a save, doesn’t the official scorer have the discretion to not award the save if the pitcher wasn’t effective? If so, I don’t believe Papelbon deserved that save. Basically the team teetered on losing the lead because of his ineffectiveness.

The Sox’ “prevent defense” did the job again! Gotta love it!
I don’t care if they have to bribe the umps to get the wins. This team needs a little self confidence and what better way to gain that than by beating the O’s.

Interesting that the only Sox pitcher who got no hold, save or win was the pitcher who didn’t give up any runs. Baseball’s a funny game.

Sox were put in an impossible situation. Dice-K gets privilege because of the cash the team has in him. I feel awful for Tim. He’s one heck of a pitcher but he’ll finish up games for Dice-K who will got about 3 innings before his back gives out so Tim will be back but I fear he may not get his 200 wins which he deserves.
Good job by the Sox. Despite Lugo, an error and sloppy play they managed to defeat a terrific team.

I see where they acquired Van Elsing from Pittsburgh Transylvania in the hope that he good stop the bleeding in Boston. Is it true that he could only play in night games???
I noticed that Lugo was giving him that “evil eye ” look when he came uo to the plate.

Don’t worry Dave, Wake will get his numbers. Dice-K won’t last, he’ll be back on the DL in no time. And from the pen he’ll still have “W” situations.
Don’t forget he’s a TEAM 1st kind of guy. He gets taken for granted and forgotten so many times but comes up huge when he’s needed.
Wow.. this place looks like a ghost town. MLB.com should have done something, but didn’t. It wasn’t enough of a priority to them.

example of what I just said about MLB.COM, my last post was typed at 8:42 a.m. eastern time and shows a time stamp of 9:42 a.m. and it took 4-6 minutes to actually post. right now it is 8:50
let’s see what time it stamps on here.

When the Sox were 2 runs, I had no doubt that the Sox would come back and won becuase they were up against the Oreos. The way the Sox dominate the Oreos is like the Rays own the Sox. Go figure and Go Sox.

You know it feels really sad when the Sox can’t hold a lead against the Baltimore Orioles. Its even sadder than Beltre belches two errors (although I guess they dropped it down to one) and Tim Wakefield was treated like it was just another game. It wasn’t. He deserved better. Dice-K treated the team with .00001 percent the respect and got treated better.
Theo Epstein…please resign. You’re the new Julio Lugo of the team.

Theo maybe you could trade Dice-K for Robert Redford. Redford hit real well in the Natural. Maybe he can continue that streak with the Red Sox. I better not say that too loud. Knowing Theo, he’ll take me seriously.
I wonder how long Tito will be with the Sox. He looks fed up.

Julio Epstein may be an appropriate name. It seems that Epstein hasn’t done much in the last couple of years. He stressed improving the defense– which hasn’t been any great shakes lately. I don’t know whether or not he had any input to switching Ells into LF. Ells is one of the best,if not the best CF, in baseball. Instead, Cameron is put in CF– a gold glove????I haven’t seen it yet– who has yet to show any contribution to the team and takes away the kind of CF coverage- particularly in Fenway- that Ells provided. Playing LF in Fenway is not where a Player with Ells’ capability should be. When both he and Cameron are healthy they should be switched ASAP. Let Cameron learn how to play handball off the wall. As far as Papi is concerned, while he had certainly been a mainstay in the past- his abilities have significantly degraded and it’s time for him to earn his keep and the quicker the better. Another gamble– Betre– doesn’t seem to add anything to the team. In hindsight, the Sox would have been better off on counting on Mikey – bad hip and all. Let’s hope that Mikey can regain his strength and get back into the swing ASAP. Scutaro- while not maybe the stellar SS that one might expect- he certainly has the gumption and ability to team up with Pedroia and provide the necessary spark to the team. Drew– at times he is pathetic and at times he shines. Lately, he continues to shine sporadically. Tek, has contributed at times, but it seems that he doesn’t have the necessary drive to lead this team. I guess old age catches up with everyone. We still need to learn how to stop the opposition from stealing us blind. I was following the TB game today and it seems that Toronto has nailed quite a few steal attempts. Maybe the Sox should study the videoo tapes and learn something. Our vaunted BP, where many pundits have given the Sox an edge, seems to be reverting back to last year– when every game that they save has us sitting on the edge. I gues all we can do is hope that things turn around or it’s going to be a long season.. But that said– Let;s GO SOX!!!

Elsbury alone cannot save this team. Nobody is hitting consistently, and now ever Predroia and Youkilis have gone in the tank. Other teams run with abandon on us and we’re powerless to do anything about it. Starting pitching is shaky, and the few times we get it’s a big question mark whether or not the bullpen can hold it if so, whether or not Papelbon can close it out.

I wouldn’t be surprised if by the end of this month we’re 8 games back and by the end of May we’re pretty much out of the race. Probably a good thing in the long run. Some pretty big changes have to be made on this team (management, personnel) and perhaps this will be the impetus to make them. Ortiz, for example, should have been gone before the season. I’ll bet he won’t be here next year!

the funny thing is the way this team is set up there really are not a great deal of options to get better for this year and next. cameron, scutaro, and drew are all under contract and virtually untradeable unless they eat the salary. i suppose they could include ellsbury in a trade for a -gonz and move youk to 3rd then go after werth or crawford in FA but i don’t see theo doin that. mauer’s gone so there isn’t really a better option at catcher available. ortiz is likely gone barring a dramatic improvement so they will need a DH but that’s about it. oh well theo called this year and next a “bridge period”. to what i don’t know but i guess he didn’t lie.

It was 4:00 am. Theo knew that because he couldn’t sleep on top of the alarm clock any more. He knew that alarm clocks were a way of keeping you from sleeping too long when you used them as a pillow, but he wondered why they were called alarm clocks. His head hurt.
He yawned and got out from the dresser drawer closing the drawer to the dresser.
“Oh I love my bunk bed.”
The bed was there where he laid out his clothes.
“The bed should be called a dresser. This whole world is mad. I like Julio Lugo. I’m sorry John Henry told me to trade him away before he killed me with a chainsaw. John has a bad temper.”
He put on his shoes first struggling to get his pants on. Theo cursed.
“Why can’t they make pants that are easier to put on once you get on your shoes. ”
Theo then put on his Spongebob underwear.
Theo then put on his shirt and walked into the shower. He washed himself and his clothes properly and then spent the next hour using a blow dryer to dry his clothes.
“Someday they’ll invent a way to wash your clothes besides the shower, “said Theo who had burns all over his skin. Why does everyone say I smell anyway?”
He then walked into the kitchen. He looked around.
“I’m hungry!”
Theo got some milk from the fridge and poured it into a pan. He started to drink it.
“Why do they make glasses so hard to drink from! Now I’ll have to wash my clothes again. Oh yes, they have a washing machine for clothes in the kitchen.”
Theo put his shirt and underwear and pants into the dishwasher. He ran it standing naked in the kitchen.
He then felt hungry in his stomach. He went to the fridge and got out a frozen waffle.
“Why can’t we use a freezer for storing something other than ice, “said Theo pondering the dilemma.
He put the waffle on the stove and burned it with the burner. When it was black enough he took out the cutting board and put the waffle on the cutting board.
“Why can’t they make plates out of ceramic, “snapped Theo.
He poured maple syrup on the board and then soaked the waffle in the syrup.
The phone rang.
Theo looked at the number on caller ID. After the ringing stopped he called the number.
“Hi John. What’s up!”
Theo could have just answered the phone but he didn’t know that feature was available.
“I can’t sleep. This team is terrible. Can’t you do something?”
Theo pondered. He said, “I’ll see you at the meeting. It’s very hard to talk while I’m eating my waffle and washing my clothes in the kitchen.
Theo hung up.
The phone rang.
“Hello.”
“Hello, you have inherited twenty million dollars and all you need to do is give me one thousand dollars…”
“Can I just give you my credit card instead.”
“Ah….OK!”
“Give me your address and I’ll mail it to you.”
“You can just give me your number.”
“It’s 555.2847.”
“No your credit card number.”
“My credit card doesn’t have a phone number.”
“The number on your CREDIT card.”
“What number.”
“Never mind. You’re even too dumb for a scam. It’s like your Theo Epstein!”
Theo hung up.
He then used the cutting knife to eat the waffle.
“Why can’t they make something other than a knife for eating?”
Theo heard his cell phone ring. He pulled it out of the microwave oven. He picked it up and looked at the number. He waited and then dialed the number.
“Hello?”
“Hello?”
Theo never figured out how to take the phone out of mute mode. He sighed.
“Hello?”
Theo then put the phone into the microwave again.
“Why do we have to have such a big tool to store cell phones in!”
Theo got his clothes out of the dishwasher and put them on. They were still filled with moisture. He was growing mould on his shirt.
“Hey…I could put my clothes in the washer in the kitchen instead of using the shower…but then why have a shower? I’m confused. My head hurts again. I don’t like it when my head hurts again. I’m thinking too much.”
Theo sighed. Theo walked outside to his car. He slid the key in the door lock. The car alarm blarred waking up the neighborhood.
“Good morning car, “shouted Theo. Theo thought the car alarm was a good morning call for the car. He was very polite to his car.
He stepped into his car and turned the engine on. The alarm finally went off after a brick cracked his windshield. He put his seatbelt on over the passenger car seat.
“I like to protect the passenger car seat from accidents.”
He turned the warning flashers on and then started honking the horn. Theo then turned the lights of his car on and off. He turned the wipers on and off. He looked around and honked the horn again.
“Getting a card to go into reverse is too complicated. My head hurts. ”
He put the car in reverse to back it out of the driveway running over his trashbags. He made it into the street.
“People are such slobs!’ cursed Theo.
He drove off to work. Trash rolled over on the pavement. His lights kept going on and off because he had the emergency harzard lights on.
To be continued….

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